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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery

The Mayor of Algonac responds to a hepatitis A outbreak by promoting antivaccine pseudoscience

Southeast Michigan is currently in the midst of a hepatitis A outbreak that started in August 2016. In Algonac, a small town in the Thumb region, the mayor decided to help a restaurant whose business suffered when one of its new staff members under training caught hepatitis A. Unfortunately, the form that help took was to host an antivaccine propaganda meeting.

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Antivaccine nonsense Autism Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking Television

False balance in reporting the case of a local mother jailed for contempt of court for reneging on an agreement to vaccinate her child

Rachel Bredow is antivaccine and doesn’t want her children vaccinated. Her ex-husband disagrees. When Ms. Bredow violated a court order to vaccinate her child, she was thrown into jail for contempt of court. Unfortunately, our local media have not exactly covered themselves in glory covering this story.

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Antivaccine nonsense History Medicine Pseudoscience

The annals of “I’m not antivaccine,” part 26: “No, I’m not an ‘vaccine safety’ advocate”

Many are the antivaxers who claim they aren’t antivaccine. Few are the antivaxers who are honest enough to openly proclaim they are antivaccine.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Will Tipper Gore be appearing at a fundraiser hosted by antivaxers?

A story in The Washington Free Beacon claims that Tipper Gore will be appearing at a fundraiser for Kathleen Murphy, a Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates running for reelection to be held by Claire and Albert Dwoskin, two rich antivaxers and donors to the Democratic Party. If the story is true and not fake news that’s bad, but even if it turns out not to be true I just had to discuss the Dwoskins, who have been funding antivaccine “studies” for several years now.

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Antivaccine nonsense Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Politics Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

In the era of Donald Trump, will the states save us from antivaxers?

There might be an antivaxer in the White House right now, but it’s at the state level where vaccine policy and school vaccine mandates are decided.